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Published: December 31st 2008
India
Us playing with our tripod, awwwwwwwwwHello!
Welcome to our first official blog from abroad! After 11 months of waiting, planning and saving, we are finally in India and it is crazy!
We are spending our final night in Delhi tonight before heading to Agra and the Taj Mahal tomorrow. But before we jump way ahead of ourselves, here's what we've been up to so far...
After leaving our parents at Heathrow (and a few tears..from Daniel) we boarded our plane but were late taking off due to the fact the plane's wings needed de-icing! After take-off things went smoothly other than a game of musical chairs and after circling Delhi airport for half an hour we finally landed! The reason for circling? Fog so thick the planes couldn't see to land!
We were then picked up by a guy from our hotel in what we think was a van once, and proceeded to dodge traffic - and cows! - at break-neck speeds until we arrived in the busiest area in Delhi - the Main Bazaar! Brilliant! Our room isn't exactly 5 star ( probably not on the scale to be honest), but its good enough. Washing yourself in a bucket is something everyone
India
Red Fort in Delhi! should try at leat once!! We had a little sleep when we arrived, to the soothing sound of builders next door, and constant car horns below. After we woke, we went for a stroll in the Bazaar, and made lots of new friends who seemed very keen to help us spend our money....we politely declined though. Despite all the chaos, it actually felt really good to be out on 'The Road' at long last. We had a lovely (spicy) dinner and retired for the evening fairly early.
December 30th
After catching up on some sleep, we walked to the renowned Connaught Place - the huge circular hub of Delhi - and instantly managed to get lost. How you get lost on a circular road still baffles us?! We finally succumbed and hailed a Rickshaw, which we took to the Red Fort which was once home of the Emperor Shah Jahan, built in 1638. This included our first experience of male-female queuing - the female queue being MUCH quicker...
From here we walked along a busy street called Chandni Chowk, where we ate Jalebis (google them), and something else on Naan Bread. Both were very nice! We then found our
India
Jalebis in Chandni Chowk - Yum! way to Jama Masjid, India's largest Mosque. The mosque has a 40m tall tower which offers amazing views of Delhi.....apparently, as we had ran out of funds and werent allowed to climb it. You win some....
Our final destination for day 1 was the Bahai (Lotus) Temple, which is ridiculously cool for a place of worship. Its a multi - religious Temple, in the shape of a, err, Lotus leaf!
Dinner that night consisted of Dosa's at the Banana Leaf Restaurant. Bed, as always, swiflty followed.
December 31st
Today, we set an alarm for an early start - and swiftly slept through it. Nonetheless, we were out and about fairly early, and started the day with a Tomb - how else?! Humayun's Tomb was probably our favourite place so far ( and gave us good oppurtunities to play with our new tripod!). This is the resting place of numerous past Mughal Emperors, we hope the photos do it justice.
From here - and after lengthy negotiations with a Rickshaw driver (brilliantly named Mr. Singh) - we headed off to our 2nd destination - Gandhi Smriti. This is where Mahatma Ghandi was shot dead in 1948. It was a naturally
India
Jama Masjid in Old Delhi very sombre place, but we're glad we went.
Finally for today, we visited Akshardham Temple, which was only built in 2005. I think we were both a bit dissapointed with this place, it felt a bit characterless compared to the older monuments.
So that leads us up to now; We have just had another nice meal ( 1 Kashmiri Biryani, 1 Paneer Korma), and soon will be heading to bed for a 5am start tomorrow, to catch our train to Agra! We will be in Agra for around 10 hours, before we catch another train over-night to Varanasi - to see the ghats of the Ganges River!
Love and miss you all
D and H
x x x
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Baz
non-member comment
Quick question .....
Hiya kids, I've just got a couple of quick questions ref the Lotus Temple (rest assured I'll write properly in a bit) 1 - Does it open and close ? and 2 - If so, do any rockets/spaceships of any description fly out of it ? Thank you.